Booklet produced by H. R. Mallinson & Co., Inc., New York. Subject is a line of silk fabrics based on Native American symbolism and lore from 1927-28. 20 leaves, 40 pages, including front and back covers. Front cover is a bust of a Native American Chief in feathered headdress (Sioux War Bonnet). Top of the entire booklet is cut following the shape of the headdress.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration. The company produced regular "Blue Books" as an advertising medium, but only the larger, more important series designs had Blue books devoted solely to them.
A length of the "Pueblo" design dress silk; Mallinson's 1928 American Indian series, with small samples of 8 additional colorways attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". The large sample in this group is in blue, brown, orange, yellow, green, black and white on a taupe-gray ground. The Pueblo tribe design is a tossed, spaced layout with motifs inspired by Pueblo ceremonial masks and musical instruments.. The other colorway samples are printed on ground colors of: white; tan; green; navy blue, red; and black.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of the "Cheyenne" design dress silk; Mallinson's American Indian series, with small samples of 7 additional colorways of this design attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right corner. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". This is a large sample with small colorway samples attached. The Cheyenne design is essentially a horizontal stripe, with a color block effect; based on beadwork fringes and bands. The large sample has a green ground with orange, red, black, white, and blue. The small samples are printed on grounds of the following colors: gray, orange, red, tan, blue, and black.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of the "Zuni" design dress silk; Mallinson's 1928 American Indian series, with small samples of 7 additional colorways attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". The large sample in this group is in orange, blue, brown, yellow, and white. The Zuni design is a painterly effect geometric with overlapping blocks of pattern such as fretwork and zigzags. The reverse of one alternate colorway with white ground is showing at upper right in the image..
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of the "Shoshone" design dress silk; Mallinson's 1928 American Indian series, with small samples of 7 additional colorways attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". The large sample in this group is in red, orange, blue, yellow, green and white on a black ground. TheShoshone design is a geometric with overlapping blocks and bands of zigzags, triangles, diamonds, and long rectangles - inspired by Shoshone beadwork.. The other colorway samples include grounds of: white; tan; green; and blue.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of printed "Klo-Ka" fabric from H.R. Mallinson's 1923 "Karnavar" series of dress fabrics. A double-woven fabric with two sets of warps and wefts. Wool forms a plain open weave fabric, and the ground upon which the raised geometric patterns are produced by interlacing with silk warp and weft. Allover printed design of Egyptian hieroglyphs and figures of Egyptian tradespeople, as on a wall painting in an Ancient Egyptian tomb. 6 colors Trade name for this double weave fabrication by Mallinson was "Klo-Ka", from the French term cloque. "Karnavar" was the series name, named by combining the Temple of Karnak with the sponsor of the excavation that discovered Tutankhamen's tomb, Lord Carnavon. HR Mallinson was in Egypt when Tut's tomb was opened, and visited the site by invitation. He wrote a lengthy telegram back to his firm, which was published in the NY Times and helped set off the Tutmania craze for Egyptian motifs.
Length of Mallinson's Morocco series dress silk, printed silk crepe:"Kutubia". Smooth lustrous plain weave weighted silk fabric made with crepe weft yarn as in flat crepe. Company #s - fabric quality #450; pattern #3546; color #13. Printed design in pink, brown, and white of an architectural motif and palm tree pattern named for Kutubia Tower, of a mosque in Marrakech, built in 1063 A.D.. One of H.R. Mallinson's 1930 "Morocco" print series, inspired by the film starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich, which was nomiated for 4 Academy Awards in 1931.
Once the Great Depression took hold in 1930, textile companies attempted to remain profitable by cutting costs, including moving from "Pure Dye" to "Weighted" silks: weighting meant adding a chemical to the dye bath that was absorbed by the silk and made it fel somewhat heavier and of a better quality.
A length of block printed Mallinson trade name "Indestructible" voile. A sheer plain weave silk fabric ornamented with an allover conventionalized flower design (imitating batik work) in American Beauty (bright pink) outlined with white on a purple ground. Batik (a wax-resist dyeing technique, known by that name in Indonesia) was very popular in the US and Europe during the late 1910s and early 1920s. H.R. Mallinson was one of several textile manufacturers to create imitations of the hand-crafted batik characteristics through mechanical means. This textile has a very large repeat and according to the manufacturer was hand block-printed. There is a break in the design on one edge, which may indicate that the length was engineered for a particular use, with this unpatterned section meant for an opening of some kind.
A length of block-printed Mallinson trade name "Indestructible" Voile. A sheer, plain weave silk fabric similar to chiffon. Printed with a dress or blouse pattern length; the material is ornamented with a block printed design (imitating batik work) which forms the front, back, and sleeves for the blouse or, as it might have been called when it was made, the "waist". H. R. Mallinson & Co. was one of many textile manufacturers who sought to reproduce the effects of hand-crafted batik (wax-resist dyeing) through more mechanized means. In this case the design was hand-block printed. Batik was very popular and fashionable in the late 1910s and early 1920s. The idea of laying the design out on the cloth (sometimes called engineering) so it could be stitched into a blouse with very little cutting was unusual at the time. This blouse length is incomplete, it shows only the neck area, sleeves, and the front (or back, difficult to know for sure) of the blouse. The complete blouse would have been symmetrical across the center of the neckline.
A length of the "Arapaho" design dress silk; Mallinson's American Indian series, with small samples of 6 additional colorways of this design attached with a Mallinson tag at the upper right corner. The manufacturer's number for this fabric quality (Pussy Willow) is #5459. Pussy Willow was a long time Mallinson trade name for an unweighted, pure dye plain weave silk with a soft hand.. At the time it was popular it was considered similar to a generic fabric type called "radium". This is a large sample with small colorway samples attached. Large sample is Colorway #9. The design is the Arapaho tribe design from the American Indian series; an irregular, curving vertical stripe layout of beadwork strips and feathers. The large sample colorway has a light blue ground with patterning in dark blue, blue-green, orange, red-brown, yellow, black, and white.
Mallinson's American Indian series followed the "National Parks" and "Wonder Caves of America" designs, and illustrates the company's continuing interest in using American themes, and in utilizing the collections of New York area museums for research and inspiration.
A length of H.R. Mallinson & Co.'s rayon pile crushed velvet in red. Sheer, almost transparent, plain weave ground; a double-woven fabric having a silk base and rayon pile - the fabric is woven so the pile warps are shared between two ground cloths woven face to face, and the pile is sheared as the fabric comes off the loom onto the breast beam, making two identical lengths of velvet.. Piece dyed red and while partly dried the cloth is tightly folded lengthwise and twisted. The fabric is then run between cylinders in this tightly wrung condition and when dried has received a permanent crushed finish.
A length of cylinder-printed "Pussy Willow " (HR Mallinson & Co. trade name) silk. A soft, drapey, plain weave fabric printed with an allover design: titled "Canterbury Pilgrims" in 6 colors. The design, which features figures in medieval dress on horseback against a townscape, in a stylized layout with random line work, was taken from the "Chaucer Window", a stained glass window in an English cathedral.
A length of cylinder-printed Pussy Willow (H. R. Mallinson & Co. trade name) silk. Soft drapey plain weave fabric: Manufacturer's numbers quality #900/ pattern 2320/ colorway 7. A directional, allover layout in a design of old time square-rigged sailing ships on a decorative ground of swirling ocean waves and stylized creatures (eg dolphins and sea monsters from old charts and maps). Light and dark greens, yellow, peach, reddish-brown (henna), and black. Produced in the same season as the "Beebe Expedition" designs, but not as part of that series.
In late 1926 American silk manufacturer H.R. Mallinson & Co. introduced a bold new line of printed silks, twelve landscape designs, each available in from eight to twelve colorways (color combinations) on three different ground fabrics. The designs celebrated America's National Parks - then only a decade old. The designs represented all the usual styles necesssary for making clothing: allover prints, horizontal stripes, checks, a border design. This long rectangular scarf is made from the overall design depicting Niagara Falls, on Mallinson's trademark Pussy Willow silk. The scarf is finished with a machine-stitched picot edging along the sides, and finished at the ends with an 8 1/2 inch wide border of plain orange Pussy Willow silk.
A length of jacquard-patterned, over-printed Khaki Kool (H.R. Mallinson & Co. trade name). A rough surface jacquard figured crepe fabric woven with warp of tussah silk and weft of tussah loosely twisted with a silk crepe yarn. Printed with allover design depicting Niagara Falls in cool colors on a white ground. In late 1926 American silk manufacturer H.R. Mallinson & Co. introduced a bold new line of printed silks, twelve landscape designs, each available in from eight to twelve colorways (color combinations) on three different ground fabrics. The designs celebrated America's national parks - then only a decade old. The designs represented all the usual styles necesssary for making clothing: allover prints, horizontal stripes, checks, a border design, etc. The waterfalls, rainbows, and swirling waters of Niagara Falls are framed in a reserve of flowers and foliage.
A length of printed rayon pile, silk ground transparent velvet fabric: Mallinson's "Orchid Tissue Velvet"; the vibrant design an allover discharge print of poppies and bleeding hearts in red, pink with green leaves and stems on a white ground. Sheer, almost transparent, plain weave ground with double-woven pile fabric with silk base, rayon pile. The mfr # for the fabric is #832; the mfr # for the design is #2085. Transparent velvet was introduced in the 1920s as a marketing name for solid cut pile on a sheer ground, usually a rayon pile and silk ground, giving the fabric a very soft hand.. The manufacturer's description of the process is: "The fabric is piece-dyed for discharge (meaning with a special dye) in a ground color, and the pile made to lie in one direction. The fabric is then run through the printing machine where the pattern is printed on the pile surface, which is afterward erected and finished. With the colors put on in the printing process is mixed a discharge chemical which removes or bleaches the ground color where it is not wanted in the pattern."
Length of Pussy Willow (trade name) silk--fine soft radium-like plain weave fabric (mfr #1900) having an allover printed pattern (mfr #2761) titled "Showboat on the Mississippi." Scenes include a Mississippi steamboat, "Carnival at Old New Orleans," and African-Americans in the cotton fields and playing music. Colorway in tan, brown, yellow, gray, red, blue, green, and black on white ground #16b. One of the designs of the H.R. Mallinson & Co., Inc. 1929 Early American printed dress silks series. This design was inspired by the Jerome Kern/ Oscar Hammerstein musical "Showboat" which was in turn based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. Judging from drawings by free-lance textile designer Walter Mitschke in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, Mitschke designed this print and several others in the Early American series. [NB: "radium" was the term widely used in the early 20th century for a type of supple, lightweight, plain weave silk fabric. The original cataloger of this textile compared it to a familiar silk quality.]
Mallinson's 1929 "Early American" series of printed dress silks was based on historical events and figures that were perceived at the time to consitute a shared American story. It was the last of the company's line of designs based on American themes in which each design was printed in at least seven colors, in several colorways, on three or four different ground cloths. The stock market crash and economic depression that followed made the investment in this kind of design unprofitable.
"Minerva" is one of the second series of La Victoire silks, produced by H.R. Mallinson & Co. in conjunction with the Peace Conference that followed the signing of the Armistice that ended the fighting in World War I. The Roman goddess of both war and wisdom, Minerva’s presence in this design suggests that the Mallinson company supported a gentler peace than would eventually be ratified by the Treaty of Versailles. The choice of Minerva, and not the Greek goddess Athena, who had similar attributes, may be due to Minerva’s association with weaving—a reminder of the medium for this message. This design of repeated roundels was printed in 4 colors on a blue ground of Mallinson’s popular “Pussy Willow” silk.
The first H.R. Mallinson & Co. La Victoire series, designed just before the Armistice to end World War I in Fall, 1918, comprised 6 designs. The first series of La Victoire prints celebrated different aspects of the French military forces. The "Scouts" design is "a clever stripe design in which the French poilu is featured on a scouting expedition." (description taken from a Mallinson marketing booklet). Infantry scouts often operated alone, ahead of their units, trying to find out the size and placement of the opposing forces. In this striped design, the seated and standing figures of the scouts appear to melt into the trees. The design is machine-printed on a lightweight semi-sheer silk crepe that the Mallinson firm trademarked as "Indestructible Crepe."
"Chasseurs" is a design from the first H.R. Mallinson La Victoire series, designed just before the Armistice to end World War I was signed in Fall, 1918. This example was printed on Mallinson's trademarked "Indestructible Crepe." The term “Chasseurs à cheval” designated elite units of the French cavalry – “chasseurs” meaning hunters, “à cheval,” on horseback. During World War I, dangerous reconnaissance missions were often given to the Chasseurs. The wide stripe design depicts standing figures and figures on horseback (the elite reconnaissance units of the French army) who appear poised for action among trees and shrubs, with a stream winding through. See TE*T04082 for the same design on a different ground cloth (Mallinson's Pussy Willow) and in a different colorway (5 colors on a dark blue ground).